Sustainability in the Global Pharmaceutical Industry from the Perspective of Several Researchers

Over the last years, the awareness of the importance of sustainability as a key issue for every company’s performance has grown considerably. Companies are increasingly being asked to perform their activities in the most environmental friendly way, not only with regard to internal processes but also in relation to their customers and suppliers, throughout their value chain. The purpose of the research is to identify at what stage the subject of sustainability is in the pharmaceutical industry and if it is one of interest and impact. We selected full papers and reviews published in peer-reviewed journals in the business/management/accounting area. Approaches of various companies have been identified in terms of maintaining sustainability in a company, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of the pharmaceutical industry that define it as a topic of interest and topicality, having a factor of great global economic, social and environmental impact. In our research, it was observed that most of the researchers put the environmental problem in the foreground. The thematic analysis of the full papers shows four distinct areas of study of the green dimension as follows: cleaner production, green supply chains, green human resource management and green materials.